This book is about the practices, roles and impacts of directly elected mayors in the cities that they govern. The volume draws on recent, original research evidence, to locate the debates on directly elected mayors in context in Europe, the US, and Australasia.
In: Forum for development studies: journal of Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and Norwegian Association for Development, Band 31, Heft 1, S. 215-220
Unlike most other areas of the social sciences, the study of urban politics has been slow in developing a comparative research agenda. This article explores the potential in comparative urban governance research. Urban regime theory does not travel very well, partly because it is an under theorized framework and partly because it is in many ways an abstraction of U.S. urban political economy. To escape these obstacles to comparative research, this article argues that regimes should be conceived of as a culturally and historically specific model of urban governance. Comparative urban governance holds tremendous potential in assisting scholars in uncovering causal mechanisms and drivers of political, economic, and social change at the urban level.
This book discusses innovative responses and reforms developed in critical areas of urban governance in European countries. It examines the impact of European Union?s policies on the urban agenda and on local governance, and the impact of the transition to democracy in Central and in Southern Europe on local self-government systems. The book is divided into three parts: i) Crisis, Reform and Innovation in Local Government; ii) EU Policies, the Urban Agenda and Local Governance; and iii) Citizen Participation in Local Government. Providing an extensive and updated overview of key challenges in the governance of cities in Europe, the book will be of interest to students and researchers in the broader field of urban studies, and for policy-makers, especially those engaged in urban governance in European countries.
"Imagining Seattle is a study of social values in urban governance and the relationship of environmentalism, race relations, and economic growth in contemporary Seattle"--